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Pining Awayby: Dianne David"The waste of our forests is a comment on the complete indifference tothe preservation of something for those who will come after us. It'scome to a great crescendo now across this continent. In our total disregardfor tomorrow, we're turning whole areas of our country intodeserts." John Henry Faulk, 1984

"one of the great experiences of my life was thefirst time I saw the arrival of a truckload oflongleaf pine lumber." Dianne David

" . . . what's happening to mankind on earth as "At one time there were 30,000 square mileshe despoils his resources?" John Henry Faulk of virgin pine forests in East Texas. It covered48 counties and now it's all gone." HenrySteinmann

Until not too long ago, I could have putwhat I know about lumber in one verysmall pocket. Henry Steinmann startedmy education by showing me somefabulous old pine lumber and givingme a book to read about the Texas TimberIndustry.Soon afterwards, John Henry Faulkmentioned that a while back he hadnarrated a television program about thebig thicket and that he was currentlyworking on another television programthat concerns the disappearance of theEast Texas forest. (Mr. Faulk's T.V.show Texas Myths & Legends will beaired February 27th on PBS.)

It occurred to me that I could get awealth of information from these twomen if they would agree to let me tapea discussion. Here we have it: A talkwith Henry Steinmann, who left athriving Houston restaurant business tomove to Austin to start Waller CreekRestoration Lumber Company, andJohn Henry Faulk, well-known writer,humorist and my own personal herowho claims that on the subject of forestsand lumber he has no expertise butsome very strong opinions.

John Henry Faulk:can History, but theis a little beyond me.

I know Amerihistoryof treesI'm glad Henry

Steinmann is here because he probablyknows more about this than I do.Dianne David: Well, let me startthis off by saying that what we know asmodern lumber today looks like thepoor, ugly relative of old lumber. Oneof the great experiences of my life wasthe first time I saw the arrival of a truckloadof old longleaf pine lumber. Theboards were 16" wide, 3" thick and 30feet long-the beams were gigantic. Iwas amazed and for the first time Icould understand why people lovewood.11